State Library recently digitised a selection of 50 glass plate negatives from the Barnard, Lawrence and Loane Family glass plate negatives collection. This collection of images taken around Queensland came to the Library unidentified and undated, but thanks to the ingenuity of our staff we have been able to identify some of these images, including street scenes from Brisbane, Barcaldine, Clermont, Gladstone, Thursday Island and Townsville.

View of Townsville from the South Townsville railway depot Queensland 1880s-1900s. 30865 Barnard, Lawrence and Loane Family glass slides. John Oxley Library, State Library of Queensland. Image 30865-0001-0034

There are still a number of images in this collection we have been unable to identify. If you recognise any of the locations featured in these photographs please let us know in the comments.

Familly in front of a lighthouse on Bay Rock, North Queensland, ca. 1917. From 30865 Barnard, Lawrence and Loane Family glass slides. John Oxley Library, State Library of Queensland. Image 30865-0001-0032

If these are glass plate negatives, it is not correct to call them “glass slides” (which, as the term is generally used, are positives).

The lighthouse in the photo was the one at Bay Rock (near Magnetic Island) that was first lit in 1886. The upper part of the lighthouse is now at the maritime museum in Townsville. Your photo was probably taken around 1917.

(The other lighthouse photo in this set–not shown in this blog post–shows the rear lead light on Bulwer Island near the mouth of the Brisbane River. The light was first lit in 1912. The lighthouse is now at the Queensland Maritime Museum at South Brisbane.)

(Also in this set, but not shown here, the “uniformed men on duty” are at the St Helena Penal Establishment. The photo shows the northern end of the stockade on the right, water tanks on the left, and warders’ quarters in the distance.)